1915 Hamilton Railroad Pocket Watch

1915 Hamilton railroad pocket watch.

The watch has a stem-winding movement, grade 992, which is working nicely. This is a high grade 21-jewel bar patterned movement with ruby and sapphire jewels with gold settings, gold centre wheel and adjusted in five positions. The movement is fully signed and the serial number 1160871 dates it back to 1915.

This is a very high grade movement which was produced in line with railroad watch specifications. The great North American railroad watch became an institution after a fatal crash in 1891, which was caused in part by the stopping and then restarting of the engineer's watch, which caused it to be four minutes slow. In the early days of railroading, when trains ran by strict time and timetable rules, that four minutes proved to be fatal. As a result, in 1893, the General Railroad Timepiece Standards were adopted, which mandated high grade specifications including a minimum of 17 jewels in the movement, five adjustments and micro-metric regulation.

The movement is protected by an inner hinged cover upon which is an inscription, 'From Parents, Dec 25, 1912'.

The watch measures 50mm diameter excluding the winding crown and the loop. The case is gold plated and it is in good condition, just a little unevenness to the back but not too detrimental. The hinged case back has engraved initials but they are a little rubbed and difficult to read.

On closer inspection, it is apparent that the movement and the case are not original to each other, and this is confirmed by the inscription and movement dates.

The watch glass is in good condition.

The signed double sunk dial is in good condition and has lever set blued steel hands, a subsidiary seconds dial and outer minute markers.

The watch will be sent in a new presentation box.

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All of our watches are checked over before listing, and are also checked for accuracy which is usually within around +/- two to three minutes over 24 hours (unless otherwise stated), which is considered respectable for a vintage watch.

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